-and yet, when he heard the banker's words, it
was as if the inner voice had whispered to him, 'Thou art the man!'

'When do you go down?' again asked Mr. Smith. 'To tell you the
truth, I was writing to Lancelot when you were announced! but the
post will not reach him till to-morrow at noon, and we are all so
busy here, that I have no one whom I can trust to carry down an
express.'

The vicar saw what was coming. Was it his good angel which prompted
him to interpose?

'Why not send a parcel by rail?'

'I can trust the rail as far as D--; but I cannot trust those
coaches. If you could do me so great a kindness--'

'I will. I can start by the one o'clock train, and by ten o'clock
to-night I shall be in Whitford.'

'Are you certain?'

'If God shall please, I am certain.'

'And you will take charge of a letter? Perhaps, too, you could see
him yourself; and tell him--you see I trust you with everything--
that my fortune, his own fortune, depends on his being here to-
morrow morning. He must start to-night, sir--to-night, tell him, if
there were twenty Miss Lavingtons in Whitford--or he is a ruined
man!'

The letter was written, and put into the vicar's hands, with a
hundred entreaties from the terrified banker. A cab was called, and
the clergyman rattled off to the railway terminus.

'Well,' said he to himself, 'God has indeed blessed my errand;
giving, as always, "exceeding abundantly more than we are able to
ask or think!" For some weeks, at least, this poor lamb is safe
from the destroyer's clutches. I must improve to the utmost those
few precious days in strengthening her in her holy purpose. But,
after all, he will return, daring and cunning as ever; and then will
not the fascination recommence?'

And, as he mused, a little fiend passed by, and whispered, 'Unless
he comes up to-night, he is a ruined man.'

It was Friday, and the vicar had thought it a fit preparation for so
important an errand to taste no food that day. Weakness and hunger,
joined to the roar and bustle of London, had made him excited,
nervous, unable to control his thoughts, or fight against a
stupifying headache; and his self-weakened will punished him, by
yielding him up an easy prey to his own fancies.

'Ay,' he thought, 'if he were ruined, after all, it would be well
for God's cause. The Lavingtons, at least, would find no temptation
in his wealth: and Argemone--she is too proud, too luxurio